Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I compliment the people working in accident and emergency departments at University Hospital Kerry in Tralee, Cork University Hospital and the hospital in Limerick. These people are at the coalface, working very hard, but they are not happy with the management of the HSE, the Minister or his Department because of what they see as failings in the system. I was grateful to the Minister in the past when I brought the management of what we will call the private hospital in Tralee to meet him to discuss very important issues such as how we in Kerry could use a model that is second to none in Ireland, given that a public hospital and a private hospital are located within 1 km of each other. The two hospitals could work far better together to achieve a reduction in waiting times. Solutions at the time were given to the Minister and his officials. The HSE, both in Kerry and Cork, knows how we could better utilise the services of the two hospitals but I am still looking for that to happen. Both are excellent hospitals in their own right, but by putting them working together, we could help dramatically to reduce the waiting times. It is inhuman to think of a person, whether old, young or middle-aged, going to an accident and emergency department and wondering whether he or she will be there for one, two or three days. It is outrageous. It should not happen at any hospital in the country that an old person would sit on a trolley and wait for hours or days. I ask the Minister, once and for all, please to try to sort it out.

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